Press Releases, 6/18/2012

Press release 148/2012
15 June 2012

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja is visiting Geneva on 18–19 June. During his visit, Foreign Minister Tuomioja will participate in the plenary sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Conference on Disarmanent.

Foreign Minister Tuomioja will meet with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, and he will discuss topical human rights issues with representatives of international human rights organisations operating in Geneva. In addition, the Foreign Minister will be a panellist at the event on women’s leadership and political participation to be held in the margins of the UN Human Rights Council, organised by Finland, Senegal and Femmes Africa Solidarité.

Finland chairs the UN Conference on Disarmament from 28 May to 22 June, 2012. During his visit, Foreign Minister Tuomioja will meet, among others, with Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament Kassym Tokayev, the leaders of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, and with Ambassador Matjaž Kovačič, the Slovenian representative to the UN in Geneva and the chairman of the next meeting of the parties to the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Finland's membership of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty enters into force on 1 July 2012.

Foreign Minister Tuomioja’s programme also includes separate meetings with Maina Kiai, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum. In addition, Minister Tuomioja will deliver a keynote speech on peace mediation and its challenges at the symposium to be held in honour of the 90th anniversary of Åland’s autonomy.